James Guthrie (Kentucky)

James Guthrie (5 December 1792-13 March 1869) was the US Secretary of the Treasury from 7 March 1853 to 6 March 1857 (succeeding Thomas Corwin and preceding Howell Cobb) and a US Senator from Kentucky (D) from 4 March 1865 to 7 February 1868 (succeeding Lazarus W. Powell and preceding Thomas C. McCreery).

Biography
James Guthrie was born in Bardstown, Kentucky in 1792, and he became a lawyer in 1817. In 1820, he became Commonwealth's Attorney for Jefferson County, which included the town of Louisville. In 1824, he convinced the state legislature to name Louisville as the state's first city, and he became a director of the Louisville and Portland Canal Company a year later. In 1827, he was elected to the State House of Representatives, and he supported the creation of free public schools in Louisville. In 1853, President Franklin Pierce recognized his financial acumen and appointed him Secretary of the Treasury, and he opposed a national bank as well as banknotes. The treasury had large budget surpluses due to the Gold Rush in California, and he shrunk the national debt from $63 million in 1853 to $25 million in 1857. In 1860, he ran for President of the United States as a Democrat, but he lost the primary to Stephen A. Douglas. He strongly opposed secession ahead of the American Civil War and sided with the Union, but he refused President Abraham Lincoln's offer to serve as his Secretary of War. From 1865 to 1868, he served as a US Senator from Kentucky, supporting President Andrew Johnson and opposing Reconstruction. He died in Louisville in 1869.